NOW THIS IS GOOD NEWS...should cut a few days from the mailing times to down range.

The Military Postal Service Agency has received a number of complaints about the speed of mail deliveries to and from Iraq.

The officials are aware of the problems and are already seeing changes to ease some of the stumbling blocks.

The main problem, agency officials said, was no mail facility in Iraq.

"Now there is one at the Baghdad International Airport, and we expect that will improve service," said an official with the agency.

In the past, mail from service members en route to the U.S. went from Baghdad to Kuwait, where it was placed on a commercial flight to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport. Mail going to Iraq also had to pass through Kuwait.

Opening the facility at Baghdad International will speed the process and eliminate Kuwait from the mail route...

...Lt. Col. Charles Preysler, commander 2nd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, recently returned from Iraq and said communicating to loved ones is probably the single biggest morale booster to troops.

"I would like to see the Army invest in ways to allow the soldiers to e-mail home even when we are separated from the normal tactical communications systems," he said in an e-mail message to The Leaf-Chronicle.

"The technology is out there as evident by the various news agencies sending their stories home nightly.

"I think we can leverage that same technology to lessen the burden on our families waiting at home with few opportunities to talk to their loved ones."

Yes, lets. Read the rest here.